Interview with Robba of Morbus Chron

I know I am always banging on about the old bands and styles, so let me hit you off with something new and already decaying, straight out of death metal’s spiritual home, Sweden. Yes, old style it may be, but hey those Swedes are at it again; playing death metal PROPERLY. One of the bands I have come across that really caught my attention, and there a more than a few, are a few guys from a suburb of Stockholm, going by the name Morbus Chron. After giving their demo more listens than was needed, I had no option but to contact them about an interview, something frontman and guitarist Robba more than adequately replied to. In fact, he was also kind enough to send me their recent demo to blog, which features underneath the following interview. Enjoy...

AFITFOG: Okay, so as you are relatively new, and certainly not known outside of the underground here in the UK, tell me a little about where you guys come from and what inspired you to make the old-school kind of Swedish death metal you play.
Robba: What?! I thought we were ‘da bomb’ in the UK dude! Ha ha. So, in the beginning we were three immature classmates living in a typical Swedish suburb, Kungsängen, if you wanna be specific. Edde and Steffe (former drummer) had played for a while under a different moniker. I had just bought a guitar for $80 and was asked to join in on the fun. After that, what can I say? Magic happened; Jesus was resurrected, Obama got elected. Right now, we’re a bit better, a bit older, but that $80 guitar still fuckin’ rocks man. For me, the desire for playing raw death came when we started rehearsing. At that time I was still very new to it all, I think most of us listened to thrash. But one rehearsal, Edde brought a fucking killer mix CD with Death Strike, Autopsy and Pungent Stench on it. And that fuckin’ settled it, we knew we had to do something like that.

Where did the name come from?
Ha ha, you can never avoid this question right? Edde was eating dinner with his family, and I don’t know how or why, but his mother - like any other normal parent - thought that it would be a perfect time to discuss bowel diseases. Anyway, the important part is that she somewhere mentioned a relative or something that was ridden with this horrible disease, Morbus Crohn. Once it was confirmed that victims of Morbus Crohn are likely to bleed out of their ass, we fucking named ourselvess after it. I mean, of course we did! The spelling mistake was not intentional though, ha ha.

What inspired you outside of metal? Any other music genres, movies, etc?
You know, when you wake up early after going to sleep 9 o’clock the day before. You hear that wonderful singing of the birds, and the sun… The sun that creates a shining aura around the houses. The trees, dancing in the breeze of the sea, just smoothly touching my hands as I stretch them toward the blue sky… That’s when you fuckin’ write good metal dude! But no, we’re not very deep musicians. Give me a can of ravioli and a beer, and I’ll write you a song. But I guess you could mention horror-movies for lyrics and that kind of stuff, you know. And a lot of fuckin’ weird ass 60s and 70s music that inspires you to be creative. I don’t know what inspires the other guys, probably porn. I don’t know.

On the recent demo, there are riffs that are reminiscent of Mayhem and even Candlemass in parts, was this intentional (to incorporate other metal sounds than just death metal)?
When we wrote the demo, it was more like, “There’s a cool riff, and there’s a cool riff, let’s put them together and celebrate!” As long as it sounded good, it’d fit on there. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re able to find some different kinds of metal in it. I won’t admit to sitting up all night, thinking of clever ways to steal Mayhem and Candlemass-riffs though. But when everything comes around, isn’t that a great recipe for a fantastic morbid death metal soup? Some thrash, some black, some doom, and some death. And fuckin’ tomatoes…

What bands in the scene nowadays are you into and which ones do you find retarded.
I can’t stand any shit-talking or that kind of stuff, so let’s just mention some of the bands we really fuckin’ dig! Maim is damn good, can’t wait for the second full-length. We got Necrowretch and Repuked, two killer bands. Envenomed, Graveless, Gravehammer, Decapitation, Vanhelgd… I could go on forever. Not to forget Bastard Priest, and my fuckin’ favorite band, Swallowed. Our close friends in Mass Death, Abduction and Intestinum, as well. I mean, there’s so many great bands. I don’t even listen to old stuff anymore, I’m too busy with all this new shit.

Why do you think death metal has made such a big comeback in recent years?
For us, we started the band and for some reason we just digged the old ways of death metal. It wasn’t because of bands like Repugnant and Kaamos. I can’t point out any specific reason other than that it was really fun to play and you felt fuckin’ evil screaming your lungs out, going “ZOOOOMBIE RIIIIITUAAAAAAAAL!”. Right now, as the scene is growing, I guess it’s because people realise that this is a damn great way to show off your creativity in a raw and unpolished way. As long as it’s good stuff and I get more demos to buy, I’m happy.

You are currently recording a new EP, correct? Any info?
That’s right dude! “Creepy Creeping Creeps”. It’s gonna be released from the depths in September by Detest Records, the same month that we start the recording of the full-length, so it’ll be like a pre-album release. I’m excited as hell, the artwork by Rafal Kruszyk is killer, and the songs are the Morbus you know, with that Mayhem riff-stealing that separates us from the rest of the bunch, hehe. You don’t really need to know more. It’s gonna be cool.

And onto the future, where do you see yourselves going with the sound you have right now?
Thanks for a great question man. Yes, really, no fuckin’ sarcasm. That’s really what I’m thinking about right now, as well. Where we will take the sound… As far as the EP goes, it’ll be very similar (to the previous releases). Nothing new, different or scary. Even though you might find a small difference, it shouldn’t shock people. Chance is you will find some weird stuff on the full-length though. A little more experimentation. And that’s probably what at least I wanna continue doing, exploring new grounds. But not in a gay progressive fashion with acoustic breaks, no way. More like riffs and structures that make you go sort of like, “What the fuck just happened there man?!” The biggest fear is being predictable. There’s so many old bands that have done it already, who put simple and heavy riffs together, that you just couldn’t get away with today. Although riff-stealing is pretty much inevitable, ha ha. But again, we’ll see what comes in the future. It’ll get your penis hard, that’s for sure.

Morbus Chron (Sweden) Splendour Of Death (2010)

1.Intro
2.In Obscuritas
3.Lidless Coffin
4.Death Strikes

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